While this is off my topic of gender, sexuality, and social movements involving abuse, I just read an article about the trend of girls kissing other girls in the college setting and how it is perceived. It was pretty interesting and I think that it is something that it is relevant to our topic of social movements. Here is a summary of the article.

Pamela Lannutti and Amanda Denes’ “A Kiss Is Just a Kiss?: Comparing Perceptions Related to Female-Female and Female-Male Kissing in a College Social Situation” studies the perceptions and implications of the growing trend of female same-sex experimentation. College aged girls may be kissing one another due to desire, need to conform, desire for male attention, or sexual experimentation. Lannutti and Denes researched how female-female kissing is perceived by males and females in terms of atypicality, promiscuity, and sexuality.

            The study was conducted on a large northeastern campus. There were 164 participants, of which 67 were female and 97 were male. Of these participants, thirty reported having same-sex kisses, and four had had same-sex intercourse; interestingly enough, all of these were female. The participants were asked to read a scenario. One had females dancing with each other in front of men with no kiss, one had this same group dancing with two females kissing, and one had the group dancing when a male joins and he and a female kiss. Results showed that males viewed the female-female kiss as significantly more atypical than the females did. Males also perceived the female-female kiss as more atypical than the male-female kiss. Males and females both viewed the female-female kiss as more promiscuous than the male-female kiss or no kiss, and any kiss as more promiscuous than no kiss. When asked about the perceived sexuality of the character in the scenario, male and female participants tended to answer heterosexual. The highest answers of bisexual or lesbian occurred in the scenario with the female-female kiss.

Referenced

Pamela J. Lannutti & Amanda Denes (2012): A Kiss Is Just a Kiss?: Comparing Perceptions Related to Female–Female and Female–Male Kissing in a College Social Situation, Journal of Bisexuality, 12:1, 49-62
Julie Anolick